-Business Standard Limits funds to states under the scheme and still looking to reduce labour budget ratios The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government had begun work on amending the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), restricting the coverage to a few backward districts, leaving out large portions of Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Kerala from its ambit. The plan was eventually shelved after protests and a debate in...

-Outlook New Delhi: There is no central programme as popular as MNREGA; this was some state governments' message to the Centre as they conveyed their displeasure over the fund crunch for the scheme. On the occasion of 10th MNREGA Divas celebrations today, these states narrated how the rural job scheme did "exceptionally well" in the insurgency-hit areas of the country particularly in the northeast and Naxal-affected districts. The northeastern states conveyed their difficulties...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Bengal appears to have emerged as one of the best performers in implementing the rural job scheme, rising to fourth on the list from being one of the laggards even two years back. According to figures with the rural development ministry, the state has generated over 11.3 crore Persondays of Work since April, next only to table-topper Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan. Till 2012, it was among the...

Documents availed through RTI reveals that the Rural Development minister Shri Nitin Gadkari has ordered to bring drastic changes in the schedule of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which includes changing the labour to material ratio and restricting the implementation of MGNREGA in 1/3rd of backward blocks in India (please click here to access a note on labour-material ratio prepared by People's Action for Employment Guarantee-PAEG). The MoRD has notified the...

-ABPLive.in New Delhi: A host of activists and academics have appealed to Narendra Modi to nip any move to dilute the 100-day village job scheme after rural development minister Nitin Gadkari brushed aside objections from within his own ministry. In a letter signed by over a hundred citizens, the signatories that included Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey, Jean Dreze, Harsh Mander, Prabhat Patnaik and Abhijit Sen sought the Prime Minister's "immediate assurance" that...